Sacrifice
by spirit-mage-234
Summary: Kaoru was the one girl chosen out of hundreds of the city's maidens to be the sacrifice for her people's rain god to end the two year long drought. Little did she know what lied in store for her when he finally approached her on the pyramid... One-shot.


**Sacrifice**

_**Disclaimer: I'm not G-d. I'm not Nobuhiro Watsuki. I'm not even Supreme Dictatoress of the Western Hemisphere yet. Therefore, I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.**_

**Warnings: Reference to blood and brief nudity.**

Kaoru had never experienced such perturbing stillness in her life: her short, young life. All that was there, atop of the lone pyramid in the middle of the arid valley, was the breeze - though warm but feeling so chilly - the clouds that darkened gradually, leaving minute opening for sunlight to pass, and the solitary buzzard, which hoped to find some scraps of a carcass, victim of the drought which has lasted for two years.

Everything was so desolate, so dead. Everything was a sign of death. Even the girl that sat and waited on the pyramid.

Kaoru glanced in the distances, at the large and acient city which she had called her home. The sun was shining brightly over there, she could tell. The sun was shining brightly, as if the Sun Deity was rewarding them for their success in finding the one girl who would deliver them from the curse called their drought by offering her life through her death, which _they_ offered.

Why would the Sun Deity praise them when it was he who dried up the land? This drought, in actuality, was all dependent on the emotions of their Rain Deity, who decided when to interlude with the sunshine with the pitter-patter of his raindrops on the earth.

Another breeze swept over Kaoru's body, and she stiffled a shiver has she just sat still. She wore nothing but the golden Rain Amulet, a beacon for the Rain Deity that would soon come. She was indeed, the Chosen One - the one maiden plucked from hundreds to be the sacrifice, chosen by the high priest of his totem, the Rain Deity.

To be the sacrifice to an omnipotent being - it was said to be the greatest of honors. Yet instead of honor, Kaoru felt nothing but anger and fear. Why had she been the one chosen out of the hundreds of other girls in the city? She was but seventeen; she never got the chance to experience anything in life. Never life without her family. Never love...

Of course, the priests could care less, let alone the city. All they cared about was preparing the virgin girl for the day of their "deliverance", sending her on top of the sacred pyramid out in the valley, with nothing but the Rain Amulet, to wait for their Rain Deity to come, and send her soul to the afterlife, after spilling her blood in the process. Her people have only performed this ritual once before, many centuries ago. Though they were never a wittness to the sacrifice, they had recorded evidence of the aftermath. All that was left of the girl was her blood spilt on the platform. Her body was nowhere to be found, probably taken by the Rain Deity for whatever reason...

She did not want to die like this. In the distance, Kaoru heard a roll of thunder, the sign of the Rain Deity's approach. Her heart clenched and her stomach tightened, which was quite painful since the priests made her fast for the last week. Trying to regain her composure and courage, Kaoru straightened her form, which immediately slumped from the winds, which were much colder and carried the scent of rain.

Rain.

Kaoru had forgot the scent.

She soon felt not raindrops trailing down her cheek, but tears.

"I don't want to die..." she whispered as she wiped the salty residue from her pale skin. She wanted to live, to see the rain once again. Did the city not care that she too, waited for the arrival of the first rains in two years, that she too wanted to stand under the heavy clouds and feel their release over her body? And now, she would never see rain again, for she was the sacrifice to bring the rain.

Just then, a bolt of lightening struck right in front of Kaoru, ruining her composure from sheer fright and reducing her to more tears. _Curse on the city and their damned rituals! _Kaoru cursed in her mind as she croached and wept her last tears onto the platform. She almost wished that the ritual would not work, that all of the priests' scrutinizing efforts were for nothing, but Kaoru knew better than to doubt the priests, especially the high priest. They knew every qualm of the city and it's citizens, and since the citizens prayed for rain at any cost, the high priest would gladly give that cost to his totem, and Kaoru had to be that "cost".

Soon, the high winds settled, and the thunder stopped, leaving only but a smoldering stream of smoke, only there was no charred stone in the platform from the thunderbolt. Kaoru watched the smoke rise in the air, only to quickly disipate, and in its place, a thick, white fog appeared around her, encasing Kaoru's naked body in a blanket of damp, but cool, humidity. The fog lingered there, bringing an eerie quietness to the atmosphere; even Kaoru's tears halted, but her heartbeat only became faster. _He is coming. He is coming._

And nearly a minute later, a black shadow emerged from the fog.

The Rain Deity was here.

Kaoru held her oncoming tears and her breath. Even in death, she would not show weakness. She instead knelt down and kept her gaze to the ground as the deity approached. And yet, even though she was afraid of her inevitable death at the hands of the deity, Kaoru couldn't help but glance up at her people's rain god for only a second.

By that time, the Rain Deity was now completely out of the fog; rather, he dispersed the fog into the wind. What was left were two figures on the lone pyramid. He was clad in a white waist garment, which still bore a significant amount of his lower legs and lower thighs. Another white cloth - which appeared to be a cape - draped down to his ankles, which had colorful bangle-style anklets adorned around them. The deity had no cloth on his torso; it was bare and exposed, except for a gold collar which covered his clavicle region and defined his chest - which wasn't heavy with muscle, but manly nonetheless. The most scrutinized part of the deity was his head. Perched around his forhead was a traditional feathered headdress made of brilliant iridescent green-black feathers. But his fiery red hair was already astonishing enough. If one was as fortunate (or rather, unfortunate) enough to lay eyes on a deity, they would have confused him with the Fire Deity.

His ears dropped lowly from the solid gold discs that latched to his lobes. And lastly - his eyes.

The Rain Deity's eyes were of the purist gold. Frightening, yet calm like a gentle rain. This feeling from looking into his eyes was perhaps the only vestige over his hold on the rain.

Kaoru's last notation of the deity before her was his countenance. He did not look happy, nor angry. His expression was calm and placcid, like the calm right after a thunderstorm. Still, fear grasped her heart. Any minute now, her soul would be delivered at the hands of the Rain Deity. She bowed and continued to stare, the only part of her visible to his radiant eyes being her pale, bare back with her blue-black hair cascading around her head.

_This is it: my destiny. _Kaoru thought, her thoughts a mere whisper.

"Are you the one who has called this one forth?" he asked in a soft voice. His voice was soft without tone, yet it seemed to boom across the entire valley.

"Yes, Mighty One." Kaoru answered, still bowing low.

"Are you the one who wears the Rain Amulet?" he asked in the same tone of voice.

"Yes. I am its wearer."

A paused settled in, and there was silence except for the wind. Would he ask her more questions, making sure she was worthy as his sacrifice?

Finally, he spoke.

"Then, are you the one intended to be this one's bride?"

For the first time on that fateful day, Kaoru felt confusion. She almost looked up with a baffled look on her once fear stained face, but she kept her stance low and bottled up the emotion in her next words.

"I have been chosen - out of several hundred virgins from my people - to be presented as the sacrifice to the Rain Deity to end the drought upon our land, Mighty One." After completing her sentence, Kaoru realized how shakily she said it, despite trying to hide her confusion and restlessness. But a burst of courage burst through her veins, and she slowly - but confidently - rose her head to look her deity in the eye.

"But I do not fear death any longer. If it will end the drought that has plagued my people for two long years, I will gladly settle my life into your hands for your taking, Mighty One."

The two stared eye to eye for some time, until Kaoru slowly knelt her body to the ground, present her back to the deity, waiting for whatever force that was meant to take her life. But the Rain Deity just stood there, stunned by the courage in the young mortal girl's eyes. Her eyes were like the color of the rain. They could be calm like a gentle rain, but fierce and frightening if reckoned with.

The Rain Deity - named Battousai - was less than stunned by the girl's facade. Albeit she gave a truimphant last speech, he could still clearly tell how frightened she was of dying. He could still see her trembling, kneeling on the ground, waiting for him to perhaps extract her still beating heart from her back. But, that was never to be, for this young maiden was his bride.

Battousai had in fact, been watching this civilization very closely. He was one of their creators, afterall. And as any creator, he was proud of his work. The civilization had developed quite diligently over the past millenia. They were a hardworking, promising, and honorable people, giving whatever praise they had whenever, presenting the gods with a spectacular alter over each bountiful harvest and plentiful rainfall. Their advancement was quick, yes; however, that had also lead to their downfall into sin and debauchery. Soon, they had forgotten the grace of the gods, and became consumed in their own greed for wealth and infinite knowledge.

So to punish them for their misdeeds, Battousai had stricken them with a drought, not once, but twice.

The first of their sacrificing rituals took place centuries before, with a girl much like the girl before him. She was the same age as she, young and frightened. So frightened was she, that she could not bear to withstand the gods' punishment, so she instead plunged a sharp slate of stone into her heart, peforming her own "self sacrifice". When Battousai had arrived at the platform, the girl had spilled her blood fully onto the platform, leaving her lifeless body to bathe in its own fluids.

Battousai took pity on this girl, and the civilization desperate enough to sacrifice her life to the mercy of the gods in order to spare themselves of certain pestilance and starvation. So he safetly sent the girl's soul to the afterlife, and gave the civilization their much needed rain, hoping that they had learned their lesson of leading a sinful existence.

They didn't of course, and so centuries later, they repeated the same process: picking the youngest, purest, most beautiful girl, starving and bathing her for a week to insure purity up to the final ritual, and presenting her to the platform atop the sacred pyramid with nothing on except for the brilliant Rain Amulet, which was the beacon that drew the Rain Deity to its wearer.

At remembering the Rain Amulet, Battousai mentally laughed at the preists' arrogance.

_Those arrogant fools, _Battousai smirked inwardly, _if they read their codexes correctly, the would have known that presenting me a virgin with the Rain Amulet without the blood marking of "sacrifice" on her forehead meant that she was not a sacrifice, but a bride._

And Battousai had taken a liking to this youth who thought she was meeting her death.

"Stand before this one," he ordered her in the same soft voice. Unsure at his notion in her mind, Kaoru rose and approached him just barely, step by step. To her surprise, the Rain Deity closed the distance between them, leaving just enough space between their bodies to study the young maiden's body. Kaoru forgot how embarrassed she should be from a man scrutinizing her bareness so evidently. Even the preists only got a look at her back.

Yes; the priests have actually done something right for once: bringing him the most beautiful of maidens as his bride. She would surely be the envy of the pantheon, and would be much better off being the wife of a god than the wife of a human.

"What do you call yourself, little one?" he asked her. Kaoru was not prepared to have been given a term of endearment by the deity that was meant to take her life. But she hastenly answered.

"My name is, Kaoru." The last part was little more than a whisper, but she was sure that the deity heard her within such a short distance.

"You are not ready for death. You are scared of your fate, are you not?" he scrutinized, with a tone that was meant to be suspicious.

"I-" Kaoru began, meaning to tell him that she was in fact ready to meet her fate, but her throat only tightened, and she lowered her gaze once again in submission, holding in the tears that would only gaurentee his guess.

Battousai merely grabbed her chin and pulled it up so he could look her in the eye. The cerulean pools that reminded him much of the rain that he controlled now resembled a river made of tears.

"Do not cry, little one," Battousai said first and foremost, gently brushing away her tears with his free index finger. "You are a very brave young woman, to have accepted your fate without resistance, and to think not of your own wellbeing, but the wellbeing the people who sought their own survival over your own."

Kaoru glanced her eyes downward, since her chin was still caught in the Rain Deity's grasp. He was right: she may have hated her fate, but if one mere girl would spare an entire civilization certain suffering...

"You are just the kind of woman that I look for in a bride."

Bride. That word again struck Kaoru like a thunderbolt struck a brittle tree. It wasn't a feeling of dread that a thunderstorm brought on a fearful child, rather, the electrifying feeling that lightening brought to the sky. The electrifying feeling that was hope.

"W-what?" she asked. Kaoru knew that it must of been of the highest disrespect to question a deity, but the words just poured from her mouth on their own free will, like the rain.

A grin crossed Battousai's face for the first time. It was quite glorious, and handsome.

"Thanks to the confounded ignorance (or rather, stupidity) of your people's high priest, you were presented to me as a bride, not a sacrifice," Battousai informed the young girl all-knowingly.

_They...made a mistake, _Kaoru said, not asked, in her mind. _They unknowingly spared me..._

The first smile graced Kaoru's face in over a week, which Battousai admired with great scrutinance. Oh, how she wanted to jump and cry out of joy.

_But if the _had_ done the ritual correctly, I would surely be dead at his hands by now. _The realization made her freeze and tremble for a second, sending her gaze to look at the mighty deity's face. He had no stern or placid expression, rather, aloof and slyful. Kaoru never would have thought that a god would have such a varied choice of facial expressions.

"Do not worry, little one. This one would never sacrifice you - not for THAT civilization, anyway," Battousai replied, as if he plucked her thought from her mind. He gave Kaoru a sly smile, which, she couldn't help but laugh softly at the deity's show of humor. What was a laugh to her was music to his ears.

"But Kaoru," he began seriously, "This one must know if you are ready to leave this world behind as a mortal and to join the world of the gods as this one's bride."

Kaoru meant to think long and hard on this obviously life changing decision. There would be absolutely no turning back, just as there was no way out of escaping her supposed sacrifice. If she decided to stay on earth, Kaoru surely knew in her heart that the Rain Deity before her would bring her city the much needed rain, knowing that she would still be dwelling within that city. But her thoughts immediately jumped to the forboding priests, who would not be very happy to see their chosen sacrifice in the city again. The high priest would surely execute her from her betrayal toward his totem. Not only that, but she had no one waiting for her, for her parents both died of sickness induced by the drought. She lived on her own without protection, and it was a blessing that she had remained pure for this long, for she would have been surely taken by either force or desperation. But if she walked with this god into his world, Kaoru knew she would be forever in his care, protection, and love. For all eternity...

"Yes," Kaoru finally answered quietly.

Before she knew it, the Rain Deity had quickly swept his cloak over her body, further protecting her bareness from the oncoming wind, but not before removing the Rain Amulet from around her neck and merely tossing it on the platform.

"This one assures you that you won't be needing any earthly posessions where you are going," he ensured her. Battousai then leaned down to take Kaoru's lips onto his own, tenderly and deeply tasting his new bride for the first time.

When he pulled away allowing her to breathe, she opened her eyes slowly, staring at his mesmorizing collar before drifting her gaze to his eyes. "What should I call you, Mighty One?"

Battousai chuckled. "Surely not 'Mighty One'" - Kaoru blushed- "nor 'Rain Deity'. 'Battousai' is what they call me up above."

Kaoru imprinted the name into her mind, and soon she felt his lips on hers once again, bringing her body closer to his under his cape.

Battousai then ordered another fog, and the Rain Deity and his bride walked into the white thicket, leaving nothing behind but the golden beacon laying on the platform, the only vestige of the girl being atop of that lonely pyramid.

_I'll spare my creation this time around for their arrogance and stupidity, _Battousai thought as he wrapped a strong arm around Kaoru's slender shoulder. _It'll be thanks for bringing me Kaoru as my bride._

A sinister - but mischievious - smirk found its way on his lips.

_After another three months of drought, that is._

* * *

Notes:

So as you can see, this was inspired by the cultures of ancient mesoamerican civilizations: the Aztecs, Mayan, Olmecs, and the like. Since it was just inspiration (nothing specific), I therefore didn't name any specifics. But, just a fun tidbit, the feathers that made up Kenshin's crown were inspired by the resplendent quetzal, which were revered by many mesoamerican people because it was associated with the Aztec sky and creator god, Quetzalcoatl. Rulers and nobility wore headresses made up of the quetzal's feathers as a link to their almighty creator god. I also read up on totems and animal worship, by the way. In some cultures, certain animals were revered so much that it was a rite to sacrifice them, while in others, you were made into the sacrifice if you dared to kill one. Quetzals fell into the latter category (lucky lil' birdies..). And for the long run, the Aztecs just caught the birds, plucked the feathers, and sent it on its way. Actually, quetzals are rarily kept in captivity, since they usually end up killing themselves (poor lil' birdies...).

In case you guys tried to tail me in the spelling department, the word in the intro paragraph isn't "min-ute" as in "give me a minute". It's "my-nute" as in "that is so minute to everyday living." English sucks that way, don't it? (haha)

Cheers!


End file.
